Late September 2005, I signed up for Broadband Service from our local phone service provider.
Although the service runs on any OS, I had no choice but to format and install Windows XP, since the installation crew didn’t know how to install it on Windows 2000. (They did know how to install it on Win98 however :-))
I've always thought WindowsXP was a memory and CPU hog, and would slow things down to nothing, but on the contrary a friend of mine advised me that with the right tweaking, WindowsXP would run just as fast or even faster that my current operating system.
A week later I can confidently say that I really enjoy all the benefits of Windows XP, with performance that’s noticeably faster than any other operating system I have used this far.
A lot of the improvement in performance has to do with disabling several visual effects that WindowsXP has, along with other seldom used features.
Anyway here’s what I did to get WindowsXP running perfectly on my system with a 850Mhz Celeron and 128 MB RAM. (Yup, its one of those systems with the "TURBO" button on the cabinet. Remember them?)
Remember, I'm only telling you what I did. Do these at your own risk, and only if you are confident with editing the registry etc.
1)Get back your old Windows looks.
Right Click on My Computer
Select Properties
Click on the Advanced Tab
Click on Visual Effects
In the check boxes below, select only the following:
Smooth Edges of Screen fonts
Smooth-Scroll list boxes
Use common tasks in folders.
2)Disable Error Reporting
In the same advanced menu, click on error reporting
Select disable error reporting
Select but notify me when critical errors occur
3)Disable Automatic updates
In the same system properties window, click on automatic Updates
Select Turn off automatic updates. You can manually select to update windows when ever you want to.
4)Disable Remote Assistance
In the same window locate Remote
Uncheck allow remote assistance for this pc
5)Download and Install Intel Application Accelerator from Intel's site. This thing does exactly its name says. Another program to download and install would be bootvis from Microsoft’s website.
6)Edit the boot.ini file
Add /noguiboot where your OS system appears in the boot.ini file
Note: You might have to enable "show hidden files" and folders and disable "Hide protected Operating system Files", in Tools->FolderOption->View, to view this file.
7)Start-> Settings-> Control Panel-> Administrative Tools->Services and disable MESSENGER service
8)Another good things to do:
Open My Computer
Open C: Drive or any other drive
Choose "Folder Options" from the Tools menu
Select "Use Windows classic folders"
Select the "View" tab.
Unselect the "Automatically search for network folders and printers" option.
Click "Apply"
Click the "Apply to All Folders" button
Click OK.
9)Speed up your mouse
In your Mouse settings box, uncheck Enhance pointer precision and set you pointer speed to it maximum.
10)Registry Edits:
1)Speed up Directory browsing:
Go to Start->Run->Type Regedit and locate the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Explorer/RemoteComputer/NameSpace
Under that branch, select the key :
{D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}
and delete it.
This makes browsing through directories noticeably faster.
2)Disable error reporting on program crash
Open REGEDIT
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PCHealth\ErrorReporting.
Edit the following value:
Value Name: DoReport
Value: 0 to disable the error report prompt.
3)Automatically close non-responsive programs
Open REGEDIT and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\ Desktop
Modify the REG_SZ entry AutoEndTasks with a value of 1
4)Speed Up Browsing
Copy the text below into a text file, save it as dnscache.reg and run it. Or,if you prefer, locate the follwing keys and change their values to the ones below.
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesDnscacheParameters]
CacheHashTableBucketSize=dword00000001
CacheHashTableSize=dword00000180
MaxCacheEntryTtlLimit=dword0000fa00
MaxSOACacheEntryTtlLimit=dword0000012d
5)Remove the Thumbs.db Files
Start the Windows Explorer
Go to Tools / Folder Options / View
In the first section under Files and Folders, check Do not cache thumbnails.
Search for the thumbs.db file on your computer and remove them. No more should be created.
6)Using Classic Search in windows XP. Get rid of Merlin and his minions.
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CabinetState Add a String Key called "Use Search Asst"
Give it a value of no
7)Speed up the start menu:
Locate and Edit the following key
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Control Panel/Desktop/"MenuShowDelay"=0
8)Speed Up Startup times for Win XP
Registry Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters
Look for a Key called: EnablePrefetcher
Set it value to: 0
Reboot
11)Change you start menu to the old Windows Start Menu.
Right click on the task bar
Select properties
Click on Start Menu
Check classic Start Menu
Click on Customize
Check only: Display Administrative tool, Display Run, Enable Dragging and Dropping, Expand control Panel, Expand Network Connections, Scroll Programs, Use Personalized Menus.
12)Disabling Services:
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This needs to be done very carefully in services.msc, and is the part that makes the biggest difference.
What you should have running and should disable largely depends on what you need running and don’t need running. (I couldn’t figure out a better way to put that sentence). I suggest you check a few sites that describe what each service does, and based on that disable or stop the service.
With all the above tweaks, Windows Xp takes 40 Seconds to start up on my PC with 128 MB RAM and an overclocked Celeron CPU (that’s from the time the power button is pushed to the point where all the Desktop Icons appear, and the HDD stops spinning).
The CPU sits idle most of the time. I'm almost always connected to the Internet, and have IE6, OE, an Image Editing program, a Webpage editing Program, an FTP Program running at the same time. Sometimes Winamp too. All work without slowing down or stalling.
Microsoft are right when they say Windows XP is faster than other windows versions.
I'm really happy making the switch to Windows XP, even though it’s come at a time when it’s due for replacement ;-)
If you're looking to run WinXp on an older machine like mine simply get more RAM and maybe overclock or upgrade the CPU.
BTW, the guy who gave me these tips (and uses them himself), runs WIndowsXp on a PC with 2 GB RAM and a AMD 64 Athlon 3200+ Socket 939 processor.
Actually nothing much really.
